The European Public Prosecutor's Office launched this Thursday a large-scale international operationwith a focus on Venice, in order to dismantle a criminal organization suspected of fraud 600 million euros of Next Generation community funds in Italy. In total, 22 arrests were made this Thursday in Italy, Austria, Romania and Slovakia.
Eight suspects have been placed in preventive prison, while 14 others are under house arrest and an accountant has been prohibited from practicing his profession. Furthermore, the investigating judge has issued a freezing order on assets for a total value of more than 600 million euros.
Security forces have seized stately apartments and villas, significant sums in cryptocurrencies, high-end watches (Rolex), jewelry (Cartier) gold and luxury cars (Lamborghini Urus, Porsche Panamera and Audi Q8), as reported by the Italian Guardia di Finanza, the main person responsible for the operation.
[El Gobierno admite ante Bruselas el posible mal uso de 17,8 millones de fondos europeos en el ‘caso Koldo’]
The defendants used advanced technologies to carry out fraudulent behavior and hide and protect the illegal business. In particular, cloud servers located abroad, cryptoasset VPNs or specific artificial intelligence software to increase the speed of production of fake documents.
The fraud plan was executed between 2021 and 2023 in order to obtain aid from Italy's recovery plan, which has awarded a total of 194.4 billion euros in Next Generation funds. It is the EU Member State that benefits the most from these subsidies, ahead of Spain (163 billion).
In 2021, members of the criminal network requested to receive non-refundable grants to support digitalization, innovation and competitiveness of small and medium-sized companies. The suspects allegedly created and deposited false financial statements to demonstrate that the companies were active and profitable, when in reality they were fictitious and inactive companies.
To do this, they used a network of accountants, service providers and notaries who helped them successfully obtain 600 million euros of non-refundable aid from Italy's recovery plan in 2 years. The suspects They transferred the funds to their bank accounts in Austria, Romania and Slovakia as soon as they received advance payments, according to the European Public Prosecutor's Office account.
[La Fiscalía Europea investiga el fraude en 321 M de fondos comunitarios en España]
In-depth analysis of more than 100 transaction reports related to the suspects helped facilitate the reconstruction of illicit financial flows; and to identify the alleged promoters, participants and facilitators of the criminal association, the Guardia di Finanza has stated.
The Guardia di Finanza assures that this Thursday's operation shows that there are adequate controls to ensure proper execution of Next Generation funds and recovery of fraudulent monies. For its part, Ursula von der Leyen's Commission has also highlighted that the recovery plan “contains a very solid control framework.”
The European Public Prosecutor's Office is the EU's independent prosecutor's office, responsible for investigating, prosecuting and prosecuting crimes against the financial interests of the EU. Now it is the Italian courts that will have to prosecute the accused.
In it whole of the European Unionthe European Public Prosecutor's Office maintains a total of 1,927 active investigations, for estimated damages of more than 19.2 billion euros. Italy is the Member State with the most open cases (618 investigations for a volume of funds of 7,380 million).
In the case of Spain, as of December 31, 2023, the European Public Prosecutor's Office had a total of 47 active investigations for cases of fraud, the estimated damage of 321.7 million euros. In recent months, this body has launched investigations into the 'Koldo case', in which the Government has admitted the misuse of up to 17.8 million European funds.
